Had ticket for Phil Collins at the Albert Hall for last night, preceded by dinner at the Ritz. My sister had bought a Red Letter Day Jazz Thames Cruise, so I thought we'd combine the two events and spend Sunday night in London. However the Jazz Cruise only operates on a Friday, so from two days we now were going for four. Never mind, makes a change to visit the capitol. The Jazz cruise was very scenic and the staff waiting dinner couldn't do too little for everyone on board; buy a bottle of wine or water, open it yourself, smile? not likely, totally glum buggers the lot. Starters were preset on each table, whether flies or coughing affected them we will never know, but penny pinching indeed.
So off we went down stream, passed HMS Belfast - seems like a good idea for a visit, booked that for Sunday. The Tower, never been there, booked for Monday (before Ritz and Phil), oh and on Sunday morning before Belfast we had Pink Floyd exhibition at the V&A.
Went to my sisters on Saturday and travelled back on the Northern line to discover no tube services on District (we needed to get to West Kensington), so got off at Bank and knew nothing about the London Bridge attack at 22.30, eventually made it to the digs, still unaware until I saw a text from my brother asking if we were OK.
Next day we did Floyd - brilliant!!! - and made our very weary way to HMS Belfast with the area under police lock-down. Miles of walking and crisscrossing the river to get there.
The muppets that did this awful crime were permitted to do so by our so called police protection the same way they allowed 7/7 to happen - twats.
You kind of feel very flat and can't get too worked up for enjoyment knowing people are suffering and killed.
The Tower was good on Monday and The Ritz certainly know how to jack-up the bill:
£20 cocktail
£130 bottle of Red
£8 after dinner coffee but only £6 for tea!!
To conclude with Phil Collins was light relief and everyone there looked as though they thoroughly enjoyed it. Phil had his son on drums, a great touch.
Got back this lunchtime via train ferry and bus to our south coast home, the joy of not having to go anywhere!
